UPDATED INFO: GDPR changes for Evolution, TechMate & Campaign365

Your GDPR compliance update for Evolution; what you need to know & how it will affect your business!

What is GDPR?

The General Data Protection Regulation is an evolution (no pun intended) of existing data protection rules and regulations. It’s aimed at ensuring businesses become more accountable for their use of Personally Identifiable Information (PII), it also enhances the existing rights of individuals.

Over the last 18 months, Gemini Systems have been working with other leading industry suppliers, business leaders and our customers to develop relevant, suitable changes within Evolution. These changes have also been key to the development of our Business Accelerators, which sets Gemini Systems apart from other, more traditional, DMS Vendors. The GDPR update will be available in May and we’ve outlined some of the changes below.

As a business, you should already be aware of what GDPR means for you and how it will affect your processes, practices and security. However, for more information on GDPR (and the steps you should make) The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) website is a great source of information and guidance.

How will Evolution help my business stay compliant?

Internal processes, procedure and security are vital considerations for you to make when considering GDPR. As Evolution should ideally hold all of your customer and prospecting data, Gemini Systems have made changes in key touch-point areas where Personally Identifiable Information (PII) is captured, amended or viewed.

****The GDPR update for Evolution will bring some significant operational changes to the way you can contact your customers.****

You’ll need to decide the legal grounds under which you are going to contact your customers. We expect most dealers will decide to contact their customers on one of the following grounds: Legitimate Interest, Soft Opt-In or Explicit Consent.

Whichever route you choose, Gemini Systems has developed specific functionality in Evolution to allow all bases to be covered in a single, easy-to-use format. Every customer record will have a section where users can record whether the customer has opted into communications, whether than be for Legitimate Interest, as a Soft Opt-In or via Explicit Consent.

Preferences can be recorded for 4 different Contact Types; Reminders, Marketing, 3rd Parties & Manufacturers. For each Type there are 4 Contact Methods; email, SMS, Post & Telephone.

Although there are 16 preferences only the first 8, relating to dealership communication, will impact your marketing via Campaign 365.

To be clear, your customers will only be communicated with, via Campaign 365, where they have been opted into communication. The only exception to this rule is where the ‘Safety Related’ option is selected during campaign creation. This option should be used for safety recalls and such items.

TechMate – Digital Service Advisor (DSA)

TechMate’s DSA is already hugely popular and allows for the collection of customer contact information in a simple, intuitive and non-intrusive manner.

For the service department, TechMate DSA will be the simplest, most effective way of opting customers in to communication. This is displayed in the following manner as part of the Check-In and Check-Out process:

Every time a customer visits the workshop, by utilising DSA, you can now pro-actively prompt them to Opt-In to the relevant contact types and channels. What’s more, because the customer digitally signs-off the jobsheet, you can be sure that their preferences are recorded.

This information is date-stamped and instantly updates the customer record.

Campaign 365

We believe Campaign365’s marketing capabilities are second-to-none, even the manufacturers are head-over-heels about its simple, intuitive yet powerful features. In fact, many OEMs supply their official marketing assets directly to us.

For most dealers, C365 controls all of their outbound marketing, so ensuring it complies with the Opt-In preferences of your customers was paramount.

Don’t forget, you need to regularly check and update your customers’ Opt-In preferences. C365 can be configured to re-contact your customers automatically, on a regular basis to get them to review their consent.

Workshop Loading Considerations

Still using a manual workshop loading diary or T-card board to manage your workshop?

Some dealers have a lot of manual paperwork laying around the Aftersales department. That’s a lot of Personally Identifiable Information (PII) which is on-show to anyone that walks through the door.

If you haven’t already moved to the Workshop Loading Diary within Evolution, we’d strongly recommend that you do so. When using Evolution’s Workshop Loading Diary, the user is given a confirmation prompt to ensure the customer’s contact information is accurate. We’ve enhanced this feature to include the GDPR related Opt-In preferences and any amendments instantly update the customer record.

Customer Records & the Showroom System

A customer’s preferences are held within the customer record within Evolution and the Showroom System (EvoSales). Each preference has the date automatically recorded against it, along with the user that recorded the preference. Any physically signed documents that you collect can also be scanned and saved against the customer record.

What about my existing data?

As part of the update procedure all of your customers will automatically be opted into communication for all options mentioned above EXCEPT where they have specifically opted out of communication in Evolution. EG: If a customer has opted out of the ‘Telephone’ method only, then after the GDPR update all options will be ticked and therefore opted-in except the 4 ‘Telephone’ options, which will remain un-ticked.

After extensive conversations with customers and other industry professionals, we feel this is the most sensible approach in updating our 500+ clients uniformly whilst having as little impact on marketing activities as possible.

***IMPORTANT – New Business Process Required***

Following the update: All new customer records will, by default, have none of the communication options ticked, meaning by default they will not receive any communications from you unless you opt them in based on Legitimate Interest, Soft Opt-In or Explicit Consent.

We will continue to review the GDPR regulations and develop our solutions to help you stay compliant. If you have any questions then please feel free to contact us about GDPR, we will do our best to help where we can; contact us on 01522 698911 or Log a ticket via Raptor

As the Automotive Industry comes to terms with what GDPR means, and as the understanding of GDPR evolves, we’ll continue to development to ensure it helps you stay legal.